{"id":116943,"date":"2024-08-29T16:43:38","date_gmt":"2024-08-29T06:43:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=116943"},"modified":"2024-08-29T16:43:43","modified_gmt":"2024-08-29T06:43:43","slug":"state-government-warns-major-sydney-train-line-closure-to-blow-out-to-more-than-12-months","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=116943","title":{"rendered":"State government warns major Sydney train line closure to blow out to more than 12 months"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The NSW state government is warning the shutdown of one of Sydney’s busiest train lines could last more than the initially forecast 12 months. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The T3 Bankstown line will close on September 30 for at least a year during upgrade works for what will eventually form the South West Metro network to stretch from the city’s North Shore at Chatswood to Bankstown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It will increase commute times to and from the city for people living in the west who will have to travel on replacement buses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

NSW Transport Minister Jo Haylen acknowledged it would be a “disruptive” and “inconvenient” time for people travelling between Bankstown and Sydenham. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 “I know this is going to be a painful period but there is light at the end of the tunnel,” she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We have a 12-month program to deliver this project and we will absolutely be holding our construction partners to account to deliver on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“But I do want to be up-front with passengers that it could take longer.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government is now expecting the closures to continue until “late 2025”. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, NSW Premier Chris Minns re-committed to upgrading the century-old rail line<\/a> into a driverless service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There had been doubt over the extension to Bankstown last year as the Minns government grappled with cost and time blowouts inherited from its predecessor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once complete, trains will run every four minutes during peak times. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Government offers free bus travel <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Passengers will travel for free on replacement bus services, known as Southwest Link, for the duration of the shutdown. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There will be 200 buses running from early in the morning to late seven days a week, and are expected to run every two to four minutes during peak travel times. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The state government said all bus driver positions have been successfully recruited for. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the original timeline for the upgrades was announced in August last year,<\/a> NSW locomotive division secretary, Farren Campbell, questioned if there would be enough drivers and said the upgrade would likely severely impact commuters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The changes to the Bankstown line are a totally unnecessary disruption to commuters who will be forced onto buses, during a time when there’s a crippling driver shortage in Sydney,” he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The only people set to benefit from the conversion of the Bankstown line are greedy developers, there’s no benefit whatsoever for commuters.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ABC News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It will increase commute times to and from the city for people living in the west who will have to travel on replacement buses.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":116946,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,1033,2695],"tags":[10194,10805,5026,2139],"class_list":["post-116943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rail-news","category-sydney-metro","category-sydney-trains","tag-bankstown","tag-chatswood","tag-nsw","tag-sydney"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=116943"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116943\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116944,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116943\/revisions\/116944"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/116946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=116943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=116943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=116943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}